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extracare

CVS. Okay, I know you’ll get bored if I keep posting about CVS – but I wouldn’t want you to miss out on free Colgate toothpaste!

Every so often, my fiancé accompanies me to the store. I thought it was about time to teach him my saving ways so he follows suit. To start, I made him sign up for his own CVS ExtraCare card. Without that, you mine as well throw money down the drain.

His first trip to the in-store kiosk was pretty rewarding – it printed out a $3 coupon for linking his new card to the phone app, and a $2 instant coupon off of Colgate toothpaste (everyone gets one this week). It also printed a $1 off any P&G product, but we saved that one for later (we’ll be going back to buy Tide).

For this particular shopping trip, we had two coupons from home – $1 off any Colgate toothpaste and $1 off any Colgate mouthwash. These came in the Sunday newspaper. Another set also came in my mailbox on Thursday with the local town paper (so I still have two more coupons for another time!)

I’ll walk you through the purchase, just as I explained it to him:
The Colgate toothpaste this week was on sale for $3.00 and the Colgate mouthwash was on sale for $3.99, plus $1 back in ExtraBucks for buying one. When we combined the $2 instant toothpaste coupon with the $1 toothpaste manufacturer coupon – it was free. Then when we combined the $3 coupon for linking his card with the $1 mouthwash manufacturer coupon – that washed out the mouthwash. He actually, technically “lost” a penny – you win some you loose some. Just make sure you win more than you loose.

Overall, 100% savings with a $0.00 receipt total – plus a $1.00 coupon on the bottom for his next purchase! If these items were not on sale, without coupons he would have paid $9.48 – yikes!

As the cashier bagged his items, she said “It always feels good when it’s free!”. Yes, good is an understatement.

You can get your own free toothpaste until CVS closes Saturday night
(September 5th)!

Don’t forget – the CVS website has a “sneek peak” of the full flyer for the upcoming week. Before you buy something, make sure there wont be a better deal in a few days!

I recently saw an instargram photo from a self proclaimed “extreme couponer” – it showed an entire table full of junk food, over 30 sticks of deodorant and over 15 bottles of off-brand shampoo that she paid a few measly dollars for. Unless this person was going to donate all of the food to a local food pantry, and donate all of the personal care items to a local shelter – I think they wasted their time. This same person also posted a photo of an entire living room floor completely covered in coupons – how do they even get those (dumpster diving?!) Some couponers spend hours, even days planning their purchases. A trip to the store could take them hours. I’m not an extreme couponer, and I’m totally okay with that!

I have a very active lifestlye, I have absolutely no time to be an extreme couponer – nor do I have any desire to be. But, I do want to save as much as they do – and I think I’ve proved that I can through my past posts. Instead of getting cheap shampoo that I would never dream of washing my hair with, I want to get the same deals with the high-quality, brand name products that I use daily. I don’t want things to go to waste, and I certainly don’t have a “storage room” for years worth of products – I will never give up my craft room!

Maybe I’m picky. Or maybe I buy certain brands because I absolutely have to. Having struggled with chronic seborrheic dermatitis and contact dermatitis my entire life, I know what I can, and what I can’t use. One load of laundry washed with scented detergent will cause irritation and discomfort for days, even weeks. Same goes for any beauty products, lotions, soaps, hair care – you name it, I probably can’t use it. Spraying aerosols or harsh cleaners can easily prompt an asthma attack. My point? The list of products I can safely use is limited – very limited and they tend to be extremely overpriced. So, I have a dilemma – I either break the bank buying products I need to use on a daily basis, or I buy cheaper products that are going to cause side effects. I don’t like either of those options, so I make sure I can always get what I want, and what I need, for a fraction of the cost.

Yesterday, I did just that. I didn’t spend an hour, or two, or five searching for deals. I literally spent 20 minutes quickly skimming through the flyers in the Sunday newspaper (which you can also easily find online…) to find the items that were on my shopping list! CVS had ALL Laundry Detergent (including the scent free version) on sale for 2/$7. It is normally priced $7.79 each. There was a manufacture coupon in the newspaper for $2 off when you purchase 2 – so I could use that. Every time you fill 10 prescriptions at CVS, you get $5 back in rewards – I had just hit #10 last week. So as soon as I walked in the store, I scanned my card at the coupon Kiosk – and out came the $5 coupon to use on anything in the store!

Overall, I had exactly $7 worth of coupons. Since the detergent was on sale for 2/$7… well that’s easy math. Without my ExtraCare card and coupons, I would have spent $15.58, but instead I didn’t even open my wallet (tax is on the price after coupons, and there’s obviously no tax on $0!). 100% savings – and I wasn’t even in the store more than five minutes.

So, I got what I wanted, what I use, what I needed – for free. Maybe I do have one thing in common with extreme couponers: I LOVE the feeling I get when I leave a store with full shopping bags in hand – that I didn’t cost me a cent!

I’ll get to the point and make this post short and sweet. If you don’t like free stuff, then move on to another blog – otherwise keep reading, then head over to your local CVS.

This week (until August 1st) at CVS, the 33.8oz bottle of Colgate mouthwash is on sale for $4.79. You’d be crazy to pay $4.79.

If you received the Sunday newspaper, cut out the $2 Colgate mouthwash manufacturer coupon. If you didn’t get the paper, I’m sure one of your neighbors or family members did – so snatch theirs.

As soon as you walk into CVS, scan your Extracare card at the kiosk and a $2.79 coupon will print out automatically. I’ve already harped upon getting this free card – but if you haven’t taken my advice yet (why not?), you can easily sign up for one within a minute at the front desk.

Lets just say you didn’t get the newspaper, and you don’t know anyone else who did…. you can still print off a 75 cent coupon from the Colgate website. Combine that with the $2.79 CVS coupon and you’d get the mouthwash for $1.41 (including CT sales tax)!